


Does anybody remember laughter?

by myrifique



Category: Almost Famous
Genre: Did Our Duty For Archive And Fandom, F/M, Future Fic, Yuletide, challenge:New Year Resolutions 2009, recipient:wordplay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-10-21
Updated: 2009-10-21
Packaged: 2017-10-11 18:24:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/115527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myrifique/pseuds/myrifique
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Okay. But I'm just gonna say this, and I'm gonna stand by it: You should be really proud of him. 'Cause I know men, and I'll bet you do too. He respects women, and he likes women. And let's just pause and appreciate a man like that. You created him out of thin air, you know, you raised him right. He's having a great time. He's doing a good job. And, don't worry, he's still a virgin, and we're all looking out for him. You know? That's more than I've ever even said to my own parents. So there you go.</p><p>This is the maid speaking, by the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Does anybody remember laughter?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wordplay](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordplay/gifts).



Sophie closes her eyes, whispers _If you still want me, please forgive me_ along with the singer and feels her soul dancing along with the violin. She's alone, and she's not backstage. She doesn't even have good seats. She doesn't think she could sleep with that cute crazy guy at the synthesizer if she tried. But the rush is still there, as if everything she ever felt gets concentrated in a few notes. So much, that it hurts. Like she's the only person in the world, and the music plays for her, about her. She undulates with the beat and wishes it went on and on as it used to do.

\---

After the show, William hangs around the stage door, a few paces away from the excited girls chatting, because he still likes the idea of being a part of the show. He's not really looking for Penny - he abandoned that idea a long time ago. He only checks airfare for Morocco once a year. Okay, maybe twice. He still likes looking at the fans, reveling in their happiness. He feels like she's embodied in them for a while.

After a while, he thinks of leaving, when he notices somebody familiar looking on with the same wistful expression. The burst of surprise makes him choke back a laugh. He debates going up to her and decides on an opening phrase - "Does anybody remember laughter?" - when she turns around to go. A little panicky, he yells "Sapphire!" and she freezes. He thinks he can see her hesitation just in the way she holds herself for a few seconds before turning around.

"The enemy," she smiles.

\---

The first thing they talk about around their coffee is the music. William throws around "incendiary" a lot, and she feels like she's been thrown back fifteen - no, thirty years, to be talking so intensely about some band who played a couple of songs. She looks into his eyes a lot and she's amazed that he still has the same boyish look, even with gray highlighting his hair. The comparison makes her feel the weight of touring and partying and extreme freedom with acuity. She's a thousand years old.

He talks about working for Rolling Stone, and this new band he just discovered, and when he whips up an iPod ("Seriously, Sapphire, you need to hear this, it'll make being alive worthwhile") she's grateful for the pause in the discussion. She closes her eyes and tries to listen, but she feels like she's being engulfed in memories, in the past, in who she was. She's not an unhappy person, but she feels tears welling up beneath her eyelids, for the lost years, and the lost passion.

\---

William walks her to her car when the café closes. (He knows it's a bit dorky, but he also knows he'll never stop being dorky, so he does it anyway.) He doesn't open her door, though. He kind of hopes she'll say something about continuing the discussion someplace else, or give him her number, or something. He's not sure what the protocol is when you meet someone who already knows so much about you for what feels like the first time. It's hard, knowing she's changed on a rational level, but not wanting to ignore their old stories either.

When it seems pretty clear she's not going to invite him anywhere, he decides to go for the straight kisses on the cheeks, because that seems pretty appropriate. He can't help it if her mouth opens when he's still close to her, smelling her hair, _remembering_ , and his lips move to capture hers.

\---

She catches her breath when he kisses her. For a wild second she thinks no, she doesn't do that anymore, and moves her hand to his chest to push him away gently when his hand reaches her side, soft and light, and she breathes out. It's William. She's safe. She closes her eyes and concentrates on the feel of him. She stops trying to be Sapphire so hard.

She's not sure how they get back to his home, but they end up tumbling on his bed like teenagers, laughing. He suggests dancing around wearing only underwear and she tells him "William, I don't do that anymore" in a mock-serious voice. His laugh rings like awkward bells when he tells her that she could. She kisses him some more to drown his words telling her that youth is a state of mind and other ridiculous stuff he seems to actually believe in.

\---

He lays against her, his head in the crook of her neck. He looks at her body raising and falling with her slowing breath and thinks back to his first time - with her and Polexia and Beth, with the craziness and the lack of emotion. The calmness is better.

"So, did you ever follow another band around?" she asks as an old Simon & Garfunkel song plays. "Another year of planes and buses and America?"

"I didn't, actually. But I - I did write a book about it."

She laughs like he's the most delightful human being she's ever heard of. "Of course you did."

And the thing is, he knows he was very fifteen the last time she saw him, and he knows she's poking fun at who he was then. But she does it in a nice way, like her edges are softer. He thinks about how he changed and how she probably did, too, even though she feels ageless in his arms, and how he can't wait to discover more of her. He falls asleep and dreams of getting lost in a song with her by his side.

\---

She wakes up at 5am, startled. She thinks of getting dressed and escaping but she looks at William, quietly sleeping with his arm around her, and she remembers that this is okay, that calm is good. That she can afford to be still for a moment. Or for a couple of years.

The next time she wakes up, he's bringing her breakfast, looking shy. He climbs under the covers with her and munches on a piece of toast while telling her about this show that's coming up in a couple of weeks.

He looks nice in the sunlight and she decides to dive in. "So, tell me everything. What did I miss?"

\---

_Okay. But I'm just gonna say this, and I'm gonna stand by it: You should be really proud of him. 'Cause I know men, and I'll bet you do too. He respects women, and he likes women. And let's just pause and appreciate a man like that. You created him out of thin air, you know, you raised him right. He's having a great time. He's doing a good job. And, don't worry, he's still a virgin, and we're all looking out for him. You know? That's more than I've ever even said to my own parents. So there you go._

This is the maid speaking, by the way.  



End file.
